The Discovery of Neopia's Moon
by Featherian Kari
Summary: A story about a Krawk that discovers Kreludor.


The Discovery of Neopia's Moon

It was just another normal working day. Negative 54 degrees out in the endless space surrounding Virtupets Space Station, but it was comfortable inside of the station. As usual, many Grundos rushed back and forth throughout the station carrying stacks of papers and the odd box or two. It was still early in the Neopian day, so only the pets that worked at the station were there, or just arriving. Not all pets that worked at the Space Station were Grundos, though. There was one oddity that traveled everyday to the station from Meridell…

"Another day of staring into deep, dark space from a cramped room while pushing buttons to keep watch on whatever may be out in already mentioned deep, dark space." LutraMakibi, a Green Krawk, muttered as she stepped out of the docking area of the Space Station. Various Grundos greeted her as she walked to the office area, where she worked as a space watcher. She had to watch out for various things like Evil Fuzzles, stray meteors or comets, and any of Dr. Sloth's evil gizmos (even though he hadn't been seen in a while). Passing by Grundo's Café , she looked at today's menu, preparing for her lunch break. After deciding on a Beef Rouladen and some Green Tea, she made her way to her cubicle, avoiding the scurrying Grundos that were cleaning up a paper spill. Sitting down, she sighed. Picking up a convenient duster, she dusted off her console and the windows that surrounded the room. She sat down at her console, turned it on, and started her workday.

A couple hours later, Lutra sighed as she stared out the window. She muttered to herself, "This ship is but a shell, it's hull lies in vacuum…" A skittering noise was heard as a Robot Spyder crawled down the wall. She shooed it away from her desk. "No robot bug nor alien race, chills my soul as cold as space." She leaned back in her chair and smiled slightly. "Or something like that." Lutra squinted at the ceiling. Something seemed to be sparkling a little in one of the cracks. She stood up, put a crate until the crack, and stood on it, reaching into the crack and pulling out a shiny coin. She turned it around in her hands, staring at it. It wasn't a Dubloon, there wasn't a pirate-like symbol on it, and it wasn't a Nerkmid, since it was round. "Maybe one of those collectable coins," Lutra muttered as she stuck it into her Neopoint pouch (she refused to call it a purse). Noting that it was about noontime, she made her way down to Grundo's Café. Waving to the chef, she picked up her food and sat down at a vacant table. While nibbling on her Beef Rouladen, she overheard two Grundo workers talking.

"I swear, I saw this large rock circling Neopia!" said the Green one.

"Did it look natural? I mean, did it look like a real rock, or did it look metallic?" the Blue one answered.

"It looked real! I swear! I'll look after lunch for it again."

Lutra shrugged off the conversation and continued eating. Searching for oddities was her job anyway, and she hadn't seen any oversized rock today. Quickly finishing her lunch, she headed back to her station, the thought of a huge meteor slamming into Neopia on her mind. "The one did say circling, meaning, more or less, rotating…" A though slammed into her head like a charging Elephante. "Does Neopia have a moon?"

At her station, she ran a scan around the surrounding area of space, and picked up a large signal. Squinting out her window she noticed something moving…something large moving towards the Space Station! "Oh my…" whispered Lutra her eyes widening. "Neopia DOES have a moon!" Quickly writing down the information that her console provided about it's location and size, she ran to the head Grundo of the Space Station. Skidding to a stop in front of his office, she knocked loudly. A "Come in!" was heard, and she rushed in.

"Ahh, Lutra, what brings you here?" he asked, chewing on the end of a pencil.

"At lunch I overheard two other workers talking about a large rock so I decided to see for myself what it was, so I ran a scan of the area and found this!" Lutra said quickly, and shoved the papers in her boss' face. He quickly scanned over the papers, nodding, and then spoke.

"So…Neopia has a moon, eh? We'll have to send someone over there to see what it's like. How about you, Lutra? You did find it."

Lutra was shocked. "B-but…I didn't find it, those other did and…" she trailed off as the leader stood up.

"I'll get a space ship ready. I'll put enough fuel it in for a round trip, since there probably won't be any life there. Unless…" he said.

"Unless what, sir?"

"Nothing. I'll have the ship ready by the end of the day. Send a letter with the mail carrier to your owner saying that you'll be home late." He exited the room leaving Lutra standing there confused. Why her? Why was she selected to go to Neopia's moon?

Three hours later, the space ship that would take Lutra to the moon was ready. Equipped with thrusters, it would only take the Krawk about forty-five minutes to reach the moon. The ship was insulated enough that she didn't need a spacesuit. Making sure that strange coin was with her, she climbed into the ship with cheers from her fellow workers. Flashing the victory sign, the hatch was closed, and she prepared for the many g-forces of launch. The hanger was cleared and the doors were opened. Lutra's mind was overflowing with thoughts of what this place would look like and if creatures lived there. As the launch commenced, Lutra was excited and nervous. The ship then took off into the darkness of space. Lutra was alone with her thoughts now.

As she got closer and closer to the newly discovered satellite, Lutra could make out some features of it. She saw a couple buildings, so either there was life there now or there used to be life. The alarm on the ship sounded, alerting that she should pick a landing spot and deploy the landing chute or crash land and burst up in flames. Finding an empty space of land, she aimed her ship at the ground and deployed the chute. She was preparing for the gravity to suck her in, but it never came. "Gravity must be really low here…" she muttered as she lessened up on the thrusters to come to a safe landing.

Bernard sighed as he put a few more books on the shelves. Not many of the other Orange Grundos came to buy books anymore since every single one in the city had read the books that he sold. He almost wished that an outsider would come, but the last outsider that came…he didn't want to remember THAT outsider. Sighing again, he stepped outside and looked at the stars. Something caught his eye. Squinting he made out a flame shape. A comet? A meteor? No…it was…"A space ship!" he yelled and ran towards where it was landing. As the small ship came to a stop near the Neocola Machine, he ran up to it to see who or what was inside. The hatch opened, and a Green thing stepped out…and immediately fell head over heels and started to lightly gasp for air. Bernard caught the strange Neopet and set it upright. He watched as it took out a pad of paper and pencil.

"Air is 80 to 90 percent of normal quality…gravity is very low." It muttered as it wrote. Looking up, it also added, "And there IS life here."

"Um, excuse me…" Bernard asked quietly. "Who are you, what are you, where do you come from, how did you get here, and are you a minion of Dr. Sloth?"

The pet laughed a little. "My name is LutraMakibi, Lutra for short, I'm a Green Krawk from Meridell, on the planet of Neopia." She, as Bernard could tell now, pointed to the distant planet. "I traveled here from Virtupets Space Station which orbits Neopia in the ship that I'm standing next to."

"So you DO work for Sloth! He created that place, took our family and friends away from us, and left us to work in the mines he also made here!" Bernard exclaimed angrily.

"I never said I worked for Sloth!" Lutra said. "The Space Station is more like an amusement park now, and Sloth hasn't been seen in a while." She paused for a moment. "Wait, you said that he took your family and friends away? I've never seen an Orange Grundo before. Why don't we go inside and talk about what's happened since then?"

"The Grundos were peacefully living here on Kreludor until Dr. Sloth came to us in the month of Hiding in Year 2. He came with a large space ship, very large, and took all of the Red, Blue, Yellow, and Green Grundos from the planet. He left only us Orange Grundos here, since he miscalculated how many of us there were. We were barely surviving until one day one of us found a rare metal. Then Sloth returned here, beaten by the Neopets on Neopia, and started the mining operation. He returned to Neopia then, and we haven't heard from him since." Bernard finished his story. He and Lutra were sitting in the back room of the bookshop drinking some Neocola.

"I believe he left to invade the Lost Desert at that time. Of course, he was defeated there as well." Lutra sipped some of her Neocola. "So, now that we know about history and stuff now, do you happen to know what this coin is?" She pulled out the strange coin that she had found earlier that day. Bernard took it and looked at it and handed it back to her.

"It's a token for the Neocola machine. I wonder how it got to the Space Station." He shrugged. "So, now that you know about us, are you going to tell anyone?"

"Of course!" Lutra exclaimed. "Kreludor is basically a part of Neopia. I'll tell the boss at the Space Station, Fyora the Faerie Queen, anyone else that's important…but don't worry. People will flock here at first, but the hype will slow down after a while." She stood up. "I should be heading back to the Space Station now with my report. It'll be a few days before trips from there to here should begin, so enjoy the peace while you can!" The two pets walked back to Lutra's ship, said their farewells, and Lutra took off for the Space Station.

When Lutra returned to the Space Station, she was met by many Grundos and, of course, her boss. Grinning, she handed him her report on Kreludor, and his eyes almost popped out of his sockets.

"Kreludor, our home, is actually Neopia's moon. It must have an irregular orbit since this is the first time it's been in our sights. I'll be sure to make a few special ships to take pets there first thing tomorrow." Lutra nodded in agreement. The boss continued. "I wonder what Fyora will say about this…"

"Miss Fyora?" A young Kacheek tugged on the Faerie Queen's dress.

"Yes, young one? What is it?" She asked the small pet.

"What's that glowy thing in the sky? It's too big to be a star and it doesn't hurt my eyes like the sun does."

"Well…" Fyora said, looking at the small, slightly glowing light grey ball in the sky. "I'm not exactly sure what it is, but I bet we'll find out soon. You better be going home now, little one."

"Okay! Bye-bye!" The little Kacheek ran out of the Faerie Queen's castle. Fyora looked back at the ball in the sky and said to herself, "Does Neopia have…a moon?"

****

The End


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